Dutton baulks at encryption bill changes

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has confirmed the government will not accept all of Labor's amendments to its encryption bill.

The opposition offered last week to pass the "inadequate and poorly drafted" national security laws before parliament rose for the year, on the condition all of its proposed changes would be adopted early next year.

But the government has only agreed to support amendments that are consistent with the recommendations of the parliament's joint intelligence and security committee, which has investigated the bill.

It argues some of Labor's amendments go beyond the committee's recommendations.

"Labor can try and water it down through whatever means they like," Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

"This is a very important bill, a very important law. I hope that Labor can get over their attempts to block it."

The bill is designed to give intelligence and law enforcement agencies easier access to encrypted communications used by terrorists and criminals on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.

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The tech industry has raised concerns about the definition of the term "systemic weakness" contained in the legislation.

Under the new laws, companies cannot be asked to create a systemic weakness, and disputes about what constitutes such an unacceptable "back door" will be determined by a former judge and a technical expert.

Asked whether he would accept amendments that clarified the operation of the laws - rather than watered them down - Mr Dutton said he was focused on keeping Australians safe.

The minister said he had been working with the tech industry and security agencies to develop the bill.

"We've taken into consideration their concerns and the bill is in the form that reflects the balance of those concerns and concerns our agencies have," Mr Dutton said.

"And frankly I'll take the advice of the director-general of ASIO and the Australian Federal Police commissioner about how we keep Australians safe over the advice of tech companies in Silicon Valley."

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus concedes the laws are imperfect and rushed but has argued he did not want the issue to remain in a vacuum over the summer period.

Mr Dreyfus said Labor would hold the government to its pledge of supporting in principle all amendments that are consistent with the intelligence committee's recommendations.

"Labor believes further amendments to this legislation are necessary in order to ensure the legislation is consistent with the recommendations of the bipartisan committee report," he said.

"The intelligence committee is continuing to inquire into this legislation and further amendments may emerge from that inquiry."